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Helping Kids Help Themselves
become responsible, happy, and successful
LIVING SKILLS SUBJECTS AND EDUCATIONAL GOALS FOR AGES 11 - 13
Living Skills
Young people often develop irresponsible behavior when they are not encouraged to assume responsibility for their actions and reactions. Parents often foster irresponsibility by not holding their young people accountable for their decisions and behavior.
The purpose of Living Skills for ages 11 – 13 is to help a parent shift the responsibility for a young person’s life from the parent to the young person. These skills can facilitate this shift by conveying to parents and young people three important concepts.
- A person’s decisions and behavior affect the person and the people around him or her.
- The negative or positive effects of a person’s decisions and behavior influence the quality of his or her life.
- Normal young people can control their behavior and therefore can choose whether to engage in positive or negative behavior.
It is recommended that parents enhance their young people’s natural desire to be happy and successful by making available to them age-appropriate Living Skills that can help them become self-actualized.
Here are the LIVING SKILLS SUBJECTS AND EDUCATIONAL GOALS for AGES 11 – 13 presented in developmental categories and sequencing.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
Overcoming Fear – Educational goals should be to explain the origin and nature of fear and teach how to respect acceptable fears and overcome unacceptable fears.
Handling Stress – Educational goals should be to define stress and stressors and explain how to navigate around these obstacles to achieve inner peace in all circumstances.
Handling Criticism and Rejection – Educational goals should be to define the difference between constructive and destructive criticism and encourage the acceptance and use of constructive criticism as well as the rejection and avoidance of destructive criticism.
Handling Rude People – Educational goals should be to explain why some people are rude and teach how to relate to rude people in various situations.
Handling Tough Situations – Educational goals should be to explain what can precipitate a rough situation and how it can be handled in a way that will be beneficial instead of harmful.
Getting Rid of Bad Habits – Educational goals should be to teach how to identify a bad habit and get rid of it.
GETTING IN CONTROL
Being Smart – Educational goals should be to put forth various definitions of intelligence and teach how to become an open-minded, critically thinking, lifelong learner.
Being Creative – Educational goals should be to assert that every person has the ability to create and explain how to discover, develop, and utilize individual creativity.
Being Assertive – Educational goals should be to affirm the right to be assertive and teach how to assert oneself in a respectful and caring way so that everyone can win.
Being In Control – Educational goals should be to teach how to gain control over one’s life by becoming responsible for every aspect of it.
Getting Organized – Educational goals should be to teach how to organize possessions, space, and time in ways that will alleviate frustration, enhance individual efforts, and lead to greater personal achievement and fulfillment.
Attaining Goals – Educational goals should be to teach how to establish and achieve viable short-term and long-term personal goals.
EXCELLING
Being Beautiful – Educational goals should be to define the various types of beauty and teach how to become a genuinely beautiful person.
Being Liked – Educational goals should be to discuss the benefits of being a person who is liked, rather than one who is popular, and teach how to become someone who will be respected and liked by others.
Being Happy – Educational goals should be to define true happiness and teach how to attain it.
Being a Star – Educational goals should be to define what is a true star and teach how to attain and maintain true stardom in one’s own world.
Being a Winner – Educational goals should be to teach how to set up oneself for winning and demonstrate how to utilize both negative and positive influences and experiences to win.
Having a Great Future – Educational goals should be to define and encourages the attitudes and behavior that need to be cultivated and implemented in order to ensure a bright future in which true happiness and success is achieved.
